I always give an album a 3-4 listen window of understanding, and I intend to do the same thing for Yellow. Well, maybe 2-3.

Well in all honesty, it may take longer than that. I'm not gonna lie - despite the things I've said around here lately, I almost gave up on Yellow & Green myself - but it's fucking Baroness. Lukcily for me, they have enough cred in my book that I hung in there longer than I would have for most other bands, and I'm so glad I did.

A few tracks on Yellow hit me right away as being good, such as "Yellow Theme", "Take My Bones Away", and most especially "March to the Sea" (frankly, that's one of my favorite Baroness tunes of all time). Others took a bit longer, such as "Sea Lungs" and "Cocainium" (the end of this track is so good, I learned to live with the odd beginning simply because I knew what was coming later in the song whenever I listened to it). The true beauty of "Twinkler" took a while to set in because of my initial shock at how mellow many of the tracks were, but that's one seriously sexy tune right there. "Little Things" and "Eula" are just OK. I still can't stand "Back Where I Belong". I skip it every time.

Green was even more of a grower. "Green Theme" and "Board Up the House" are fantastic, and "Stretchmarker" might be one of the most beautiful tracks ever made by anyone, ever. However, "Mtns. (The Crown and Anchor)" and "The Line Between" took a bit longer. "Collapse" hit me the same way as "Twinkler" did - I thought it was WAY too mellow at first, but later I came to appreciate it. The outro track is a throw-away type thing. I still can't stand "Foolsong". The most controversial song for me on both halves of the album is "Psalms Alive", because at first I absolutely hated it, and for a while I was convinced they were actually singing off key. Just before the halfway point, though, the song turns on a dime and lunges for your throat. From there on in, it's fantastic - so I suppose it's a bit like "Cocainium" in that regard.

Overall, I think I prefer Yellow by a very slight margin. Now that the dust has settled from all the butthurt, false praise, hype, anti-hype, wailing & gnashing of teeth and so forth that took place when the album first dropped, I think I can say that it was a challenging album to love right out of the gates, but the more I listen to it, the more I appreciate it. I still prefer Red and Blue when I'm in a purely metal mood, and I've come to terms with the fact that Baroness may never make another album like those two. Their EP's are even better when it comes to the heavy-sounding stuff. So at the end of the day, I have enough ass-kickery from Baroness to last me for many years. If they want to go ahead and evolve their sound into something none of us ever expected - but which makes them happy - then who am I to complain?

The problem with the "mellow at first but gets heavy" tracks is Baroness are already spending way too much time being mellow to begin with. If you're rocking 6 tracks in a row, then you're allowed to switch it up like that. But the problem is, they're spending so much goddamn time being "beautiful" that by the time one of the "epic" tracks comes up, I'm too pissed off to care.

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You know its true, bunny rabbits we have got lovely little fluffy bottoms. We do. That's why people often mistake us for Danny Devito.

The problem with the "mellow at first but gets heavy" tracks is Baroness are already spending way too much time being mellow to begin with. If you're rocking 6 tracks in a row, then you're allowed to switch it up like that. But the problem is, they're spending so much goddamn time being "beautiful" that by the time one of the "epic" tracks comes up, I'm too pissed off to care.

That's not a problem with the album, that's just your personal gripe with it.